was in years past, a lower priority today than the obvious higher priorities, iran, the middle east, syria, north korea, china, russia, and so forth. i would imagine considerably lower priority. >> did cuba policy wax and wean with each new administration? >> it did. it did. the most ferocious opposition was in the kennedy years. jack kennedy, as i said, was really determined to do something about the cuba problem. he was obsessed. hue millñhr -- huh mill -- humiliated by castro in the bay of pigs. kennedy's obsession was vietnam so cuba declined precipitously. presidents like ford, carter, made very serious efforts to achieve that with fidel castro, the opposite of what kennedy was doing, and so, yes, cuba maxed and waned. a different kind of priority over the 50 years for 10 or 11 american presidents. >> on the reverse side, does cuba have good assets? did cuba have good assets in the u.s.? has the castro regime tried to assassinate a u.s. president? >> i don't think castro ever had a direct hand in an assassination plot against an american president, but i describe in the book some of